At last the Olympics are coming to Northern Ireland

The London 2012 bid promised that the games would be the games of the nation and not just the capital. However, despite many sports facilities in Northern Ireland being ready on being built there had been no team commitment to train in Northern Ireland until today.

Four teams, all aquatic sports, had commited to train in the Republic of Ireland, despite a new Olympic sized pool being developed here in Bangor due to be opened in Spring next year. The teams are the Hungarian and British water polo teams, US synchronised swimming team and the UK Paralympic swimmers. Yes two parts of TeamGB aren't even training in GB&NI despite the team and games supposedly representing the who nation.

However, we will welcome the Australian boxing team to Northern Ireland next year, to use some of the facilities that helped gain 3 golds and 2 silvers at the last Commonwealth Games and topped the table for boxing. They have signed a letter of intent to train here ahead of the games and are the first team to do so. We hope that some others will follow.